Shooter wounded when a township official tackled him and turned his weapon against him, according to eyewitness account.

August 06, 2013|By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call

Authorities are combing the scene of last night's deadly shooting at the Ross Township Municipal Building in the Poconos, and they have scheduled an 11:30 a.m. news conference to provide further details.

Three people were killed and four others were hospitalized when authorities say township resident Rockne Warren Newell opened fire at a crowded township supervisors meeting around 7:25 p.m.

Newell has had and ongoing dispute with township authorities for over a decade about his ramshackle Flyte Road property. Newell has items scattered throughout the property and the township has tried for years to force him to clean it up.

Newell is now in police custody and officers have his road blocked off while they search his property.

Monroe County District Attorney E. David Christine was at the scene Tuesday morning talking with state police investigators at the Municipal Building, which is surrounded by lush green hills and sits next to a large open park.

Authorities at the building, located near the Route 33 Saylorsburg interchange, said they may release the names of the victims at Tuesday morning's news conference.

State police at Lehighton said Newell began firing a rifle through the windows of the Municipal Building on Anchorage Road, where between 15 and 18 people were gathered for the supervisors meeting.

Newell, who officials said had a long-running dispute with the township over his property, entered the building and continued to fire the rifle, state police said. He then left the building, where he retrieved a handgun from a vehicle, returned to the building and continued shooting, police said.

Newell, 59, had recently been removed from his property at 293 Flyte Road, after township officials condemned it for code violations, state police said.

Two of the victims died at the scene, while the third died at St. Luke's University Hospital-Fountain Hill after being flown there by helicopter. A fourth victim was reportedly in surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest late Monday night after being taken there by helicopter.

Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen said he would not release the identities of the victims who died at the scene until their relatives are notified.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim has not released details who died at St. Luke's Hospital.

The gunman, who suffered a gunshot wound, was hospitalized at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg. According to a Pocono Record reporter's first-person account of the shooting, Newell was injured when a township official turned the gunman's own weapon against him,

One person suffered a graze wound from a bullet. Another person was hospitalized with what state police described as a "stress-related" illness, police said.

State police Capt. Edward Hoke said at a briefing at the Monroe County 911 Center in Hamilton Township that Newell was subdued by a member of the public and the township official, who reportedly shot Newell.

"It was certainly courageous what they did," Hoke said. "They absolutely would have saved lives. He was entering the building again with a handgun and his intent had been shown to do harm to people, and certainly if they would not have done that he would have injured other people."

Hoke said police were working to obtain a search warrant to obtain evidence from Newell's former home.

Hoke said Newell has been removed from his home Thursday because of issues related to the lack of sewer service on the property. There was nothing on the agenda of the supervisors meeting related to his property.

Hoke noted that Newell had arrived at the meeting in a car with Texas license plates. Police were also working to obtain a warrant to search the car and obtain the rifle allegedly used in the shooting.

The handgun that Newell allegedly used was recovered from the scene by police.

For more than a decade, Newell has been in a dispute with the township over the property, which was littered with cast-off building parts, junk cars and other debris. Newell said in an interview at the time the items were like a museum collection.

Court records show the township obtained an $8,000 judgment against Newell in district court. The nature of the township's lawsuit against Newell is unclear in court records.

Pocono Record reporter Chris Reber, who was covering the meeting, reported seeing bullet holes appear in the walls and a string of shots.

"It was automatic, like a string of firecrackers. That's what everyone said," Reber wrote.

After an initial round of shooting, the gunman went to the parking lot and returned with another weapon, police said.

Reber said a township official who was tending to a wounded man was able to wrestle the shooter to the ground and shot the gunman with his own gun.